So I needed to get some labels printed and sort out packaging for my products. I had never done this before and I am in a strange place where I don’t know anyone or where to go to get things done (not that I deliberately set out to make things hard for me you understand!). So here is what I did. Firstly I got on the internet and found some label making companies and then I contacted the 3 that looked like the best. My plan was to meet and talk to them and decide which I thought would do the best job, my criteria was to get a design that matched the products and have them printed by Oct/Nov at the lowest possible price. Of course when a sentence starts with ‘my plan’ you know that that’s not how it going to work out and the same is true here! In the end up only 1 person turned up and due to other circumstances I was not in a position to follow through with ‘my plan’ and I decided to give him free reign an see what he could come up with. After a slow start things went really well the designs were lovely and kind of what I had in mind and everything seemed on course for me to launch my product for Christmas. Cardiff is very pretty at Christmas and I knew that there was a market in the centre with little huts/chalets (see pic) I thought this would be the ideal place to launch my products, so I set about finding out how to get one which was not as hard as I thought and in no time I has secured a space for 2 weeks at the start of December. Yay! All systems Go!!!!

Then everything went quiet…….. Market gets closer labels seem further and further away…….. Then I get quote for labels – shock! horror – too expensive – panic – calm down and rationalise this. I regroup, scale down & go for a run of labels for the 3 main products in each range but time is slipping away and I have a Christmas chalet in the centre of Cardiff to fill and it is becoming increasingly unlikely that I will have labels for my products – EEEK! What am I going to do?

Here are the lessons I learned

1. Set a definite completion date at the start of the project.

2. As soon as feasibly possible agree order details (quantity, price, delivery date) and get confirmation in writing.

3. Don’t be distracted by other things like leaflets websites etc., get one job done at a time and give it you full concentration.

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I am a Medical Herbalist starting a new practice in a new city. I have developed a range of cosmetics using plant based organic ingredients that I love and want to get people using them!